Tackling Gender Inequality in the Boardroom

LONDON, ENGLAND, December 23, 2011 (Press-News.org) Some signs are emerging that the executive-level diversity landscape is changing. Looking at individual cases paints a promising picture of women beginning to dominate the boardroom. Some of the world's largest technology companies are now led by women, Meg Whitman is president and chief exec at HP and Virginia Rometty is soon to assume the same role at IBM. Closer to home, Ruby McGregor-Smith is CEO of MITIE (and non-executive director at Michael Page) and Angela Ahrendts and Cynthia Carroll have led FTSE 100 listed Burberry and Anglo American respectively for several years.

However, it's in isolation that these examples reflect positively. According to an article published in the Evening Standard on 4 November 2011, "women still account for only 14% of FTSE 100 directors and critics argue that progress towards greater equality remains too slow."

Busting the gender imbalance

To help increase the rate at which workplace gender imbalance is addressed, the government and industry have instigated a range of initiatives to investigate, explain and offer practical ways to secure increased female representation.

In early November, the creation of the Women's Business Council was announced by Theresa May, the home secretary and minister for women and equalities. The 10-strong council will share advice with ministers on how to increase contributions from women to future economic growth. Focus will be placed on mentoring programmes for female entrepreneurs, and the provision of advice about finance and work-life balance.

Alongside this, in the private sector, Management Today were launching the Inspiring Women networking programme, which hopes to boost the profile of women at work with mentoring activity, expertise sharing and practical input.

Lord Davies and the 30% Club

Much of this recent activity stems from recommendations made by Lord Davies after his independent review published in February 2011. Suggestions include organisations setting targets for the number of women they aim to have on their boards, and for the executive search community to introduce a voluntary code of conduct to address gender diversity and determine best practice to ensure this through search related activity.

The response was the creation of the 30% Club, a voluntary initiative for members of the executive search industry to take part in, to ensure each stage of the recruitment process works towards the ultimate aim of 30% female representation at senior leadership level in the UK's top companies by 2015.

Michael Page Executive Search is proud to sign up to the 30% Club - not because of 'diversity for diversity's sake' but because a gender balance at all areas in an organisation makes sense - it encourages the right mix of skills, track record and experience for ultimate commercial success.

What Theresa May said to us...

In an exclusive update to Michael Page Executive Search, Theresa May commented, "Addressing the gender imbalance in our boardrooms is an absolutely necessary part of growing our economy. The most forward thinking companies are realising that women can bring fresh perspectives, new ideas and experience to their boards. They know that a company board that better reflects its customers is better able to understand their needs. And they know that there is growing evidence that companies with more diverse boards do indeed perform better, with greater returns on equity and faster growth.

Executive Search companies have a key role in supporting greater diversity and I would strongly encourage all of them to sign up to the diversity code launched earlier this year."

We also debated the topic of women rising through the ranks in our LinkedIn group. To get involved in the discussion, please join us at Michael Page Executive Search - UK.

Michael Page International has 35 years expertise in professional services recruitment. Over this period we've grown organically to establish ourselves as one of the best-known and most respected consultancy companies, employing more than 5,350 people in over 156 offices and 32 countries worldwide. For more information, please see the Michael Page website at http://www.michaelpageinternational.com.